How often are college students using the dating app Tinder to cheat on their partners?

Psychology research recently published in Personality and Individual Differences investigated how often the popular dating platform Tinder was being used to cheat on a partner.

The study found that most Tinder users know someone who has used Tinder to cheat. Almost a third of the participants thought other people used Tinder to cheat often.

“There has not been a great deal of research on whether Tinder is actually used to facilitate infidelity. Many people assume so but as we know, not all assumptions regarding relationships are accurate so it is important to conduct scientific research to test these lay people hypotheses,” explained Dana A. Weiser, an assistant professor at Texas Tech University.

“Tinder and other mobile dating apps have changed how we meet partners so it is essential that researchers understand what these changes are precisely.”

The study of 550 college students who had used or were using Tinder found that about one in five participants admitted to talking with a person on the dating app while in an exclusive romantic relationship.

A minority of the college students even admitted that they had used Tinder to engage in infidelity. About 9 percent said they had been physically intimate with somebody they met on Tinder while in an exclusive relationship.

“As many have assumed, Tinder is utilized to meet extradyadic partners. Moreover, variables that predict engaging in infidelity offline also predict the likelihood of engaging in infidelity via Tinder,” Weiser told PsyPost.

“Specifically, sociosexuality and intentions to engage in infidelity are positively associated with using Tinder to meet outside partners,” she explained. “Once we considered those individual difference variables, no differences emerged between men and women. Participants were also quite mixed as to whether Tinder was an effective way to meet outside partners.”

The study, like all research, has some limitations.

“This was a cross-sectional study using college students so the generalizability is limited,” Weiser explained. “We also only looked at a few variables that are often associated with infidelity; other personality traits and information about the primary relationship should also be considered.”

“There are numerous questions still to be answered. For example, are the same people engaging in infidelity with partners met online as well as offline? Do these patterns hold true for older adults or individuals not enrolled in college? Do individuals in different geographic regions use Tinder more or less to engage in infidelity? Are individuals who use Tinder to engage in infidelity more or less likely to be caught?”

The study, “Swiping right: Sociosexuality, intentions to engage in infidelity, and infidelity experiences on Tinder“, was also co-authored by Sylvia Niehuis, Jeanne Flora, Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter, Vladimir S. Arias, and R. Hannah Baird.

CarpetStore on December 30th, 2017 at 22:34 UTC »

Would be curious to see these results compared to this study that shows only 29.8% of Tinder users have actually met up with someone they found on Tinder.

The_tiny_verse on December 30th, 2017 at 20:18 UTC »

I'd think college students who use Tinder are likely to be a more promiscuous segment of the population than all college students.

If it were possible, I'd be interested in knowing the amount of people in the same segment of the population that had engaged in flirting that would be seen as inappropriate in a committed relationship.

I'd be curious to know what role technology plays in this. I mean, I'm sure I did it in my early 20's, maybe very slowly on my Nokia phone with no keyboard.

This seems pretty useless without a control. "20 year olds continue to get it on, with different people even."

Edit: I was a little flip with my statement, the point I am trying to make is: this study has very limited value because a control is nearly impossible. I see a lot of examples of social media technology being presented as a new human experience, with no proof offered that it is not a different way the human experience is conducted; there are definite examples to the contrary of this, but too often the idea that technology is changing the social fabric is presented as self-evident. My use of a personal example was not meant to defend any theory, it was a joke. I have no evidence that college students who use tinder are likely more promiscuous, but not all college students use tinder, and it is a group that does not reflect all college students- and very likely has differences in sexual behavior from the whole.

kerovon on December 30th, 2017 at 18:40 UTC »

Link to the article

Abstract for convenience:

Tinder is a popular mobile dating app among young adults that may be used to facilitate meeting extradyadic partners. Participants who had used or were using Tinder (n = 550) indicated that most knew somebody who had used Tinder to meet extradyadic partners, and several participants reported that their own infidelity had been facilitated by Tinder. Participants were varied as to whether Tinder was an effective method for meeting extradyadic partners. Sociosexuality and intentions to engage in infidelity were associated with having used Tinder to engage in infidelity. Gender was not significantly associated with using Tinder to meet extradyadic partners when sociosexuality and intentions to engage in infidelity were also included in analyses.

And the Limitations and Conclusions section from the article

Like all research, the current study has limitations that should be noted. First, our sample was comprised of students attending one particular small city university and the findings cannot be generalized. For instance, Tinder may be more widely used to engage in infidelity among young adults not enrolled in college or by college students at more urban universities. Furthermore, social networks in other locations may not be nearly as concentrated as they were in the present study. Also,age is likely linked to whether and how individuals use Tinder. As a result, additional research with more diverse samples is needed to illuminate the use of Tinder as a facilitating method for engaging in infidelity in the general population.

Second, this study was cross-sectional and all data were collected in a single session. Other researchers might use longitudinal methods to examine how gender, sociosexual orientation, intentions to engage in infidelity, and other variables may prospectively predict use of Tinder for engaging in infidelity. Third, only a few types of extradyadic activities were assessed in the current study. For example, participants were asked if they messaged people on Tinder, but questions were not asked about the nature of these messages and whether participants shared sexual content. Future work should include a more exhaustive list of infidelity behaviors. Finally, the study only explored sociosexuality and intentions to engage in infidelity as predictors of infidelity. These variables were selected because the constructs are consistently and robustly linked to infidelity; however, future research might consider the role of additional constructs (e.g., the Big 5 personality traits, self-esteem, attachment orientations). Additional research may also examine how successful individuals are using Tinder to engage in infidelity and whether success rates differ with regard to gender and individual differences.

In conclusion, many young adults appear to be using Tinder as a means to engage in infidelity. Indeed, most young adults indicated that they knew somebody who had used Tinder to meet extradyadic partners and a non-negligible number of participants reported having engaged in infidelity via Tinder. Sociosexuality and intentions to engage in infidelity were significantly associated with having used Tinder to engage in infidelity. This finding suggests that individual difference variables that predict offline infidelity also help to describe individuals who use Tinder to engage in infidelity